Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan & Jackie Steiner. They and their team shared their story with us below:
As a chiropractor and massage therapist duo, Ryan and Jackie Steiner were introduced to escape rooms in Chicago in 2015 and fell in love. The challenge and excitement of it all were contagious and by 2016 they had opened the doors of UNRAVELED Escape Room.
UNRAVELED quickly pushed the envelope by creating Minnesota’s first Mobile Escape, an on-site challenge for events and workplaces by bringing fun to the people.
We innovated the escape room industry with exciting features like full-spectrum brain-activating puzzles (utilizing sight, sound, spatial, patterns, and kinesthetic), themes in complete darkness, and multi-room games (up to 5) when the industry standard at the time was one or two.
After seven years of entertaining the people and visitors of Rochester UNRAVELED Escape Room got dealt a blow by having its current building scheduled for demolition and quickly needed to find another location to rebuild.
Despite this apparent setback, it was a blessing in disguise as now we could innovate, push the limits, and recreate the magic once again! Our new location at 4925 W Frontage Rd Rochester, MN 55901 is ground zero for the most extraordinary escape room build-out beyond anything that anyone has ever seen.
At UNRAVELED Escape Room, we are expanding our thoughts, we are bringing the best of the best puzzles and challenges, and we are creating the most special escape room and entertainment facility around.
UNRAVELED Escape Room “Do you have what it takes to escape?”
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Things were not always smooth. As with any small business, there is a *huge* risk of failure (50%) in the first five years of opening your doors. We did not even start making money until our seventh month after opening!
Not many people are willing to stick with things for that long and see them through. Another obstacle, that only small businesses needed to face, was government shutdowns in 2020. That was another time of hardship that we luckily had the fortitude to make it through.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We specialize in and are known for, our diverse array of puzzle types and our commitment to theme immersion.
As previously stated, our goal with our puzzles is to hit as many centers of the brain as possible for groups that progress through each of our themed rooms.
By having puzzles catered towards the five senses, spatial ability, pattern recognition, physical, and teamwork-based we make it so that anyone single person cannot “run the show” for their whole team and it does take a group effort to be successful. The experience also feels a lot more satisfying to the individual that way as well.
As far as immersion goes, we press to maintain consistency in all of the various thematic elements, such as the storyline, room furnishings and decor, and puzzles and physical challenges.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking.
Risk is an essential element in getting to where you want to be in life. You can’t achieve any meaningful outcome in life without risking something.
I very much view myself as a risk-taker, whereas my wife has more of an aversion to risk. Naturally, I seem to push the envelope and stretch our boundaries more and Jackie has to sometimes reel me back down to Earth.
Opening UNRAVELED Escape Room and pouring every last dollar in our bank account towards it was a huge risk.
Getting out of chiropractic and massage therapy when we had steady patients and clients to pursue UNRAVELED was another huge risk.
Starting Wits & Grit, a physical and mental 5k outdoor race event, was a tremendous expense and risk (and loss!) that saw the construction of a large obstacle course, planning, and effort.
Marketing is constantly a risk because most forms of marketing are unclear as to what the return on investment is. You could spend thousands each month getting your name out, only to see no difference in your sales from last month or last year.
Keeping our doors open through 2020 and beyond instead of filing bankruptcy, when nobody knew how long the lockdowns would last, was yet another huge risk.
We have had many, many risks throughout our business history. Some pan out and some don’t, but we just have to keep moving forward!
Contact Info:
- Website: UnraveledEscape.com
